Hope for patients who have damaged ovaries

Women whose ovaries are too old or damaged to produce eggs could still become pregnant following a transplant breakthrough.

Scientists will announce today that a monkey has become the first primate to become pregnant from transplanted ovarian tissue. Such pregnancies have previously only been achieved in rats.

The result offers hope for women who risk losing their fertility because of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or early menopause.

Scientists hope it could herald the first step towards ovarian tissue "banking" - allowing healthy young women to store their ovarian tissue in case of fertility problems in the future.

The US research, carried out at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Virginia, will be unveiled at an international conference.

Ovarian tissue - containing premature eggs - was removed from a rhesus monkey. The tissue was placed in other sites in the monkey's body. She was then given hormones and the transplanted tissue produced eggs. These were fertilised using IVF before being implanted in the monkey's womb.

Professor Roger Gosden, from the institute, said: "This procedure has utility for preserving the reproductive potential of cancer survivors and treating menopause, and suggests that ovarian tissue banking may be feasible."